DigitalGlobe takes first crack at 100 gigabit-per-second service

CenturyLink has turned on a 100 gigabit-per-second network for DigitalGlobe, making the Longmont-based satellite imaging company the first CenturyLink customer in the United States using the super-fast service.

Monroe, La.-based CenturyLink Inc. (NYSE: CTL) upgraded its telecom network in late 2012 to handle 100-gigabit-per-second speeds in its 50 biggest U.S. markets plus London and Singapore.

It started working with DigitalGlobe (NYSE: DGI) earlier this year on building a 100-gbps dedicated network connecting DigitalGlobe’s headquarters in Longmont and its remote data center.

“This is not like turning up high-speed Internet for your home — it’s a lot more complex,” said Scott Russell, vice president and general manager of CenturyLink’s Denver-Northern Colorado market. “It takes a lot of working closely with a partner. This is a DigitalGlobe solution, but it’s one that we can replicate for other customers.”

The 100-gigabit connection between DigitalGlobe headquarters and its other data center — it won’t disclose the location — should speed the process of getting new imagery out to subscribers that use DigitalGlobe imagery for nearly real-time monitoring areas.

DigitalGlobe, which bought its direct rival GeoEye last year, operates five satellites taking images of 2.5 million to 5.5 million square kilometers of the Earth each day, feeding into a digital archive holding 3 billion square kilometers of imagery.

With 100-gigabit speeds, DigitalGlobe can more quickly get new images loaded into the “global base map,” making the data more relevant to the customers that subscribe to DigitalGlobe’s cloud service, said Scott Hicar, DigitalGlobe’s senior vice president for global technology services.

The data speeds on the 100-gigabit line will give DigitalGlobe capacity for future growth as its 44 petabytes of stored data grows larger.

“This absolutely sets us up very strategically for the next several years,” Hicar said.

The company chose CenturyLink because it had the network capability and has been a local partner for DigitalGlobe, he said.

Other CenturyLink customers are in discussions to get 100-gigabit services, too, Russell said.

How fast is 100 gigabits per second?

100 gigabits per second equals 12,800 megabytes per second105 megabytes per second: Fastest residential Internet connection offered by ComcastFor example, a 100-gbps service can download 20 years of Hubble space telescope data in the time it takes a typical home Internet connection to download a high-definition movie, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.